Freshsales and HubSpot almost always land on the same shortlist when a sales team starts looking for a new CRM. Both are mature, popular and cover far more than a simple contact list. Yet they pull in different directions: Freshsales is lean and sales-focused, while HubSpot is a broad platform built around a strong marketing core. This article compares the two fairly and factually so you can tell which tool fits your team.
What each one is about
Freshsales belongs to the Freshworks family and was designed as a sales CRM from day one. Leads, deals and a clean pipeline sit at its heart. Phone and an AI assistant come on board early, without forcing you to work through endless modules.
HubSpot began as an inbound marketing tool and is now a platform made of several hubs – Marketing, Sales, Service, CMS and more. The CRM is the shared data foundation that the individual hubs cluster around. If you want marketing and sales tightly connected, you get a coherent setup here.
Usability and onboarding
You notice the difference at your very first login.
- Freshsales feels focused. The interface is tailored to everyday selling and the learning curve is gentle. Small and mid-sized teams are often productive within a few days.
- HubSpot is well designed too, but considerably broader. The free version starts simple, yet the more hubs and features you use, the more configuration and onboarding you take on.
Rule of thumb: if you want pure sales without ballast, Freshsales gets you there faster. If you want to go broad from the start, you accept HubSpot's greater complexity.
Features side by side
Both systems cover the sales basics: contacts, pipelines, tasks, email connection, reporting and AI support. Their priorities differ, though.
- Sales first: Freshsales bundles lead scoring, pipeline and built-in phone compactly in one place. HubSpot offers the same in its Sales Hub, but often fully fledged only in higher tiers.
- Marketing: this is where HubSpot shines – landing pages, forms, email campaigns and content tools mesh deeply. Freshsales deliberately stays leaner.
- Automation: both provide visual workflows. HubSpot's automations reach further into marketing, while Freshsales keeps them closer to the sales process.
- Scaling: HubSpot aims more at growing organisations with many departments. Freshsales stays the more straightforward sales tool.
Pricing and transparency
Both start cheap or free, but get noticeably more expensive as requirements grow.
- Freshsales has a comparatively clear tier structure and a free entry point. Features such as advanced AI or automation sit in higher plans.
- HubSpot tempts you with a generous free version, but serious sales and marketing features live in the paid hubs. Costs scale heavily with contact count and additional modules.
In both cases it pays to work out in advance which tiers and modules you really need – otherwise you quickly pay for features that go unused.
When Freshsales, when HubSpot?
- Freshsales fits if you want a focused sales CRM with built-in phone and a quick start – ideal for sales teams that don't need the full marketing arsenal.
- HubSpot fits if marketing and sales should work closely together and you want a broad platform with room to grow – and you're ready to invest in onboarding and higher tiers.
So there is no blanket "better". The right choice depends on how much you want to fold marketing in, how large your team is and how much complexity you're willing to carry.
AM CRM as an alternative
Comparing the two, many teams realise they need neither HubSpot's full marketing setup nor yet another tool landscape – just something that covers everyday selling. That's exactly where AM CRM comes in. It's an all-in-one sales CRM where everything is included in every plan: contacts with a 360° history, visual drag-and-drop pipelines, built-in phone (one-click calling, auto-dialer, recording, call logging), WhatsApp, SMS and email in two-way mode, automations via a visual flow builder, appointment booking and AI features such as call summaries.
Instead of licensing modules one by one, you get a focused tool – fast to set up, transparently priced from 12 €/month (−40% yearly) and GDPR-oriented from Europe. Especially for teams that call a lot and work over WhatsApp, it's often the leaner choice.
Want to see how a focused sales CRM feels? Try AM CRM free for 14 days and decide for yourself how much simpler selling can be.